Cosmetic Surgery

Leading UK surgeons call for ban on cosmetic surgery advertising

Jared Yee | 28 January 2012

Leading plastic surgeons in the UK have responded to the current crisis in cosmetic surgery by calling for a ban on advertisements for all types of cosmetic surgery, including breast enlargements and tummy tucks. They say the industry is an under-regulated “wild west”.

Cosmetic surgery industry under fire after implant scandal

Michael Cook | 21 January 2012

The UK’s cosmetic surgery industry is under fire in the wake of the liquidation of a French company which made faulty breast implants. For a number of years Poly Implant Prothese had been manufacturing breast implants with industrial grade silicon instead of medical grade. Now the implants are rupturing at a higher than normal rate and a woman has died in France of a rare cancer which appears to be related to the leakage.

A scalpel for the soul

Michael Cook | 03 September 2011

In some countries, there are doctors who doubt whether elective cosmetic surgery is really medicine at all, since it doesn’t heal anything. But not in Brazil, where “la plástica” is a national obsession like among rich and poor alike, where newstands feature Plástica & Beleza, next to Marie Claire, and where the legendary Dr Ivo Pitanguy is second only to Pelé.

The bioethics of Botox

Michael Cook | 02 July 2011

The results of recent study in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science should make bioethicists consider the ethical dimension of Botox injections. Botox, which irons out wrinkles by paralysing facial muscles, makes people less empathetic, says David T. Neal, of the University of Southern California.

Score one for the Patriarchy!

Michael Cook | 21 May 2011

In an ethically dubious medical specialty, “Aesthetic Vaginal Surgery” may be the most dubious of all its subspecialties.

Australia may regulate cosmetic surgery for teens

Michael Cook | 21 August 2010

Government report recommends more professional qualifications

Cosmetic surgery junkies and their doctors

Michael Cook | 14 August 2010

Only 30% of doctors think that BDD sufferers should not get surgery

Cosmetic surgery become feminist demand in US

Michael Cook | 05 December 2009

Controversy over Bo-Tax